“It will help deliver easyJet’s strategy of continued profitable growth towards our target of 12 per cent return on capital employed through the cycle, while providing even more flight capacity for our passengers.

“A central feature of the agreement is the flexibility it gives easyJet to vary the growth rate in its capacity to reflect economic conditions and market opportunities.”

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Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou welcomed the prospect of turnover increasing from the capacity boost.

Following the announcement he said: “We shall see if these 15 incremental aircraft will find deployment on profitable new routes and earn the appropriate return on capital employed.

“I am still hoping to get greater transparency on which routes these and any other new aircraft are to be deployed.”

Stelios - whose family controls 38 per cent of the shares in easyJet – has previously been critical of easyJet’s expansion plans.